Having carefully hidden one of the knives and nine pieces of gold in the beds, they divided the remaining eight pieces between them. Akram took off his turban, unrolled his hair, and hid his four pieces in it. He then, with the point of a knife, unripped two or three stitches in the lining of Percy's coat and dropped his money into the hole.

"How about the knife, Akram? That is a much harder thing to hide."

"It must be hidden on you, sahib, so that if we are separated you will be able to use it if you see an opportunity."

He took the knife, and with it cut off a strip an inch wide from his cloak; then he pulled up one of the legs of Percy's long Sikh trousers, and with the strip of cloth strapped the knife tightly against the side of the shin-bone; the handle came close up to the knee, the point extended nearly to the ankle-bone.

"There is no fear of that shifting," he said when he had fastened the bandage and pulled the leg of the trouser down again. "And even if they felt you all over they might well omit to pass their hands over the leg below the knee."

"It is certainly a capital hiding-place, Akram; I should never have thought of putting it there, and it is the last place they would think of searching for anything. Now, we can have a look at the window; it is very strongly grated."

Akram shook his head. "There is no getting through there, sahib; these bars have not been up many years. The stonework is perfect, and with only our knives it would be absolutely impossible to cut through that double grating. The room has doubtless been meant for someone whom they wanted to hold fast and yet to treat respectfully. We may give up all idea of escaping through the window. That stonework was evidently put up at the same time as the gratings. You see the rest of the wall is of brick."

"I don't see it, Akram; it is all covered with this white plaster."

"Yes, sahib; but all the houses here are built of brick, that is to say of brick and woodwork, and I noticed this one is also; besides, if you look at the plaster carefully you can make out the lines of the courses of brick underneath it; it is a thin coat, and badly laid on."

"It is a nuisance it is there," Percy remarked. "If it hadn't been for that it might have been possible with our knives to have cut away the mortar between the bricks, and so have got them out one by one, till we made a hole big enough to get through. Of course it would be a long job, but by replacing the bricks carefully in their places and working at night it might have been managed. But this white plaster renders it quite impossible unless the whole thing could be done in one night, which would be out of the question. There is the floor; we must examine that presently. I have read of escapes from prison by men who managed to raise a flooring stone, made a hole underneath big enough to work in, and so made their way either into another room or through the outside wall. It would need time, patience, and hard work; but unless we are able to bribe the man who brings us in food, that is how it must be done."

He pushed aside one of the rugs. The floor was composed of smooth slabs of stone about a foot square. "It could not be better," he said. "There should be no great difficulty in getting up a couple of these slabs. They are fitted pretty closely, but we ought to be able to find one where there is room for the blade of a knife to get in between it and those next to it."

"That is good, sahib; I should never have thought of getting out that way. However, if you tell me what to do I will do it;" and Akram went to the place where he had hidden his knife.

"There is no hurry, Akram. We can fix on a stone while there is daylight, but we can't begin until we are sure that everyone is asleep. They may bring us in some food at any moment; and before we begin in earnest we shall have to find out the hours at which they visit us, and how late they come in at night."

At this moment they heard steps coming along the passage.

"Sit down on that stool," Percy said, while he threw himself down on one of the charpoys. "We must look as dull and stupid as we can."

A man brought in a dish of boiled rice and meat. Akram addressed him in Punjaubi, but he shook his head and went out without a word.

"If none of these fellows speak anything but their own language, sahib, it will be difficult to try and get them to help us, for it will not do to let out that I can talk the language; for if we once get free, that will be our best hope of getting through the country."

"We will try the other way first at any rate, Akram. The money we have is not sufficient to induce a man to risk his life in assisting us, and he might possibly think he could do better by betraying us; in which case we might be separated and put in a much worse place than this."

"That is true enough, sahib; at the same time the money we have is a very large amount here. He would not get above three or four rupees a month, so that it would be four or five years' pay. Still there is the danger of his betraying us. As you say, we had better try in the first place to get out as you propose."

"It is nothing to what men have done sometimes, Akram. They have escaped through walls of solid stone. They don't build like that here. The bricks are not generally well baked, and are often only sun-dried. As soon as we have finished this food we will examine the stones. We will begin near the outside wall—we might get into an inhabited room if we went the other way—and working towards the outside we know we have only to get through it to be free, for these rugs will make ropes by which we can slide down without difficulty."

Examining the flags along the side of the outer wall they found two or three where, without much difficulty, they could insert a knife in the interstices.

"Let us set to work at once, Akram; we can hear the man's footstep right along the passage, and shall have plenty of time to drop the stone in and throw the rug over it before he reaches the door. I want to see what is underneath, and I specially want to have a place to hide the two knives in case they should take it into their heads to search us."

The cement in which the flat slabs were laid was by no means hard, and in half an hour they had cut it all round one of the stones. This was, however, still firmly attached to the cement below it. "I am afraid to use any pressure, Akram, for we might break the knives."

"That is so, sahib; if we had an iron bar we might break the stone, but I see no other way of loosening it. Perhaps if we were to jump upon it we might shake it."

"I don't think there would be much chance of that, and if there is anyone in the room below they might come up to see what we are doing. We might fill the cracks with water all round and by pouring in more water from time to time it might soak in and soften the cement, but of course that depends entirely upon its quality; however we might as well do that at once."

They filled the cracks with water, drew the rug over the place, and then returned to their seats. Presently Akram said:

"We might try wedges, sahib."

"So we might, I did not think of that; and there are the beds, of course."

"Yes; I could cut away some pieces from the under part of the framework of one of the beds."

"That will do capitally."

It was slow work cutting out a piece of bamboo sufficiently large to make a couple of dozen of wedges, and it was dark long before Akram had finished. It took another three hours to split it up and make it into wedges. As soon as these were completed, they drove them in close to each other along one side of the stone, pressing them in with the haft of a knife with their united weight. When all were wedged in Akram tried the stone.

"It is as firm as ever, sahib."

"Yes; I did not expect that we should be able to move it, especially as we have not hammered in the wedges. If it does not move by morning we must tap them in, giving a tap every four or five minutes; that would not be noticed; but I hope we shall find it is loose then. You see the crack is full of water, and so the wedges will swell and exercise a tremendous pressure. In some places they split stone like that."

They threw themselves down on the beds and slept till morning broke. Percy was the first to open his eyes, and at once leapt up, ran across the room, moved the rug, and examined the stone.

"It has moved, Akram. The side opposite the wedges is jammed hard up against the next stone."

"It is as firm as ever, sahib," Akram said, trying it with his knife.

"Yes, because it is held by the pressure of the wedges. When we get them out we shall find that it is loose from the cement."

They found, however, that there was no possibility of getting out the strips of wood.

"We have only to wait," Percy said. "As soon as they are dry they will be loose." It was, however, two days before the moisture had evaporated sufficiently for them to be able to draw out the wedges.

"Now let us both put our knives in on this side and try and lift it."

Repeated trials showed them that this could not be done. In the evening, however, when the lamp was brought them, they heated the point of one of the knives in the flame until it had so far lost its temper that they were able to bend the point over by pressing it on one of the flags. Again heating it they dipped it in water to harden. They then ground the point down on one of the stones until they were able to pass it down the joint that the action of the wedges had widened. The bent point caught under the stone, and they had no difficulty in raising it.

"There is the first step done," Percy exclaimed in delight. "You had better warm the knife and straighten the point again."

They experienced no great difficulty in getting up the next stone, which they had loosened in a similar way to the first while waiting for the wedges to dry. As soon as this was up they began cutting into the cement. The surface was hard, and the knives at first did little more than scratch it; but below they found it much softer and got on more rapidly. As they removed the cement they placed the powder a handful at a time on the window-sill, and blew it gradually out through the grating. After three nights of continuous work they had made a hole a foot deep and come down upon wooden planking.

"This is doubtless the ceiling of the room underneath," Percy said. "There can be no one sleeping there or they would have heard the scratching overhead." By lifting up the stones, which they always replaced at daybreak, they could hear voices, and did not recommence their work at night till they were well assured that no one was stirring below. As the stones they had taken out were next to the wall, they now commenced operations on the brickwork. This they found much easier, as the mortar was nothing like so hard as the cement, and on cutting it out between the bricks they had no great difficulty in moving these. After two nights' work they had taken them all out with the exception of the outside layer, as they were able to calculate by the thickness of the wall at the window. During the daytime the bricks that had been removed were stowed away in the hole.

"We shall be out to-night," Percy said exultantly, as they replaced the flags for the last time. "This last layer will be easy work, for as soon as we have cut round one brick we shall be able to pull it in, and can then get a hand through the hole, and the others will come quite easily as soon as we cut away the mortar a bit. There will be no occasion to tear up the rugs to make a rope. We are not more than eighteen or twenty feet from the ground, and two or three of them knotted together will be enough. We will set one of the beds over the hole and tie the end to that."

Percy felt nervous all day, being in fear every time he heard a footstep in the passage that something might occur which would upset all their plans. They had now been ten days in their prison, so there was time for a messenger to have gone to Jummoo, and thence to the fortress and back. Still he hoped that his uncle would at any rate refuse to accept Ghoolab Singh's first offer, whatever it might be, and that lengthy negotiations would go on. Nothing out of the ordinary routine happened; their guard came three times a day as usual with their food; and after his last visit Percy sprang from the couch.

"Hurrah! Next time he comes he will find the place empty, Akram. Now let us set to work at once."

Four hours of hard work sufficed to make a hole large enough for them to crawl through. The charpoy was brought over the hole, the money stowed away in their clothes, and the rugs knotted. Then, feet foremost, Percy wriggled out through the hole, holding the rope tightly, and slid down to the ground, while two minutes later Akram stood beside him. They had already taken off their turbans and rewound them much more loosely, so as to resemble closely those worn in Cashmere. They started at once up the hill, and continued their course until they reached a wood high up on the mountain side. They had already determined upon their course. It was of the greatest importance that they should obtain dresses of the country, for though they might have made their way along the hills they would have difficulty in buying food, and might find horsemen already posted at the various passes by which the mountain ranges were traversed. At daybreak Akram took off his long coat, arranged his clothes in the fashion of Cashmere peasants, and started boldly for the town.

"The shops will soon be open," he said, "and unless anyone happens to go round to the back of our prison, which is not likely, they will not find out that we are gone until the man enters at nine o'clock with our food, and long before that I shall be here again. You need not be uneasy about me, sahib. Being really a native of the valley, no one can suspect me of being anything else."

Soon after eight o'clock he returned with two complete suits, in which they were soon attired. As the natives of Cashmere are fairer than those of the plains of India, it needed but a slight wash of some dye Akram had brought up with him to convert Percy's bronzed face to the proper tint, and as soon as this was done they descended the hill and came upon the main road below the city. Soon afterwards some horsemen passed them, galloping at a furious rate. These did not even glance at the supposed peasants, but continued their course down the valley. Other and much larger bodies of horsemen afterwards passed them, but, like the first, without asking a question.

"Doubtless they think we have at least twenty miles start," Akram said. "I expect the first party were going right down to the mouth of the valley, warning all the towns and villages to be on the look-out for us. The others, when they think they must have passed us, will scatter and occupy all the roads and passes. Some of them will push on until almost within sight of the fortress, so as to catch us there if we manage to get through the woods and pass the lines of watchers."

At a leisurely pace they proceeded down the valley, Akram sometimes entering into conversation with peasants they met, and going into shops and buying provisions; he learnt in the villages that strict orders had been given to watch for a Sikh with a young Englishman who had escaped from a prison at Serinagur. Akram joined in their expressions of wonder as to how an Englishman could have got there, and how t............